What Is Your Name?

Chapter 30: I Promise I'll Tell You Her Name (Sky)

"Sky, where are we going?" I giggled. I wish I could say this was one of the weirdest things that ever happened to me, but it wasn't. Sky had brought me to the front gate of the school, tied a blindfold around my head, and started leading me somewhere. Neither he nor Grey and Tempest would tell me where we were going. Heck, they wouldn't even talk. Sky had one of my hands and Tempest had the other. Grey tailed behind with his arms around my shoulders. He and Tempest knew where we were going. I could just feel it.

"We're here!" Sky crooned, but he didn't remove my blindfold. Grey laughed.

"Seriously, Sky, where are we?" I moaned.

I felt Sky put his hands on my shoulders. He was right in front of me, but still, he wouldn't remove the blindfold.

"Lillian, what is the school doing now that Eli is dead?" he asked me.

"We're going abroad to fight more. And we're gonna miss our flight if you don't release me, dummy," I pointed out.

"We're not late. We're early," Grey argued.

"No offense, Grey, but you're never on time to anything, so I don't trust you," I smirked.

"I'm hurt."

"In this case you're both right," Tempest sighed. "Grey, you are always late, but Lil, we're doing fine on time."

"So what are we doing with that precious time?" I asked again.

"I promise I'll show you the world," Sky blurted.

"What?" I was confused.

"I promise I'll show you the world," Sky repeated. "That's my song lyric, remember? That's what I promised your mother I'd do for you. And now we're being sent abroad. Around the world."

"Lil, Sky is keeping his first promise," Grey explained.

I felt Tempest place her hand atop Sky's on my shoulder. "Lillian," she whispered to me, "what was the next line of the song? 'I promise I'll show you the world...'"

I gasped. Probably would've cried if my eyes weren't being covered. I supplied the next line. "And I'll tell you your mother's name..."

"Lillian, I know you can't see right now, but listen to me," Sky ordered. "We are standing in a cemetery. To the left of the gravestone we are standing in front of is the grave of my father, your grandfather, Cloud. To the left of that is my mother, your grandmother, Willow. Back to the gravestone we're in front of; to the right of it is a new stone. One that bears your father's name. Leaning against it is my guitar. Not as some sort of offering, but because I brought it with me. And the gravestone we are standing in front of has three pieces of paper before it, two of which you have seen, but they don't have masking tape on them anymore. And the third paper bears another name, one you've never seen before. One I should've shown you a long time ago."

I realized what was going on. "We're standing in front of my mother's grave..."

It was everything and it was nothing. I had my own tempest, my own hurricane of emotions whirling inside of me. My whole life, I had stayed strong so I could live to see this moment. But once it happened, what would I have left?

If someone had asked me that question a couple months before, the only answer I could even fathom was Sky. And of course I still loved Sky, but I had a whole family built around me now. I had so much to live for, so many things I wanted to do. I wanted to... grow up, make more friends, get a house, start a career that I loved. I wanted to maybe get a cat or a dog, or even both. I wanted to fall in love over and over, maybe have kids one day if that's what I decided to do.

Sky always said I was a ray of hope, that I seemed so happy even when things didn't go our way. But he was wrong. When things went badly, I felt pain. I tried to feel hopeful. I tried to feel happy. But I had been going about it in the wrong way in that I hadn't just stopped to be happy. But now? I felt more hopeful than I had ever felt, hopeful enough to understand what Sky had been saying all along.

Because all along, I had been looking for something that was just mine. I hurt myself so the hurt would be just mine. But all along, I had had a life. My own life. And it was mine. And it was beautiful.

"Sky?" I whispered through the tears that were finally coming. "Sky, I love you. And Grey, and Tempest, I love you guys, too. Sky, we can do this today, or tomorrow, or the next day. We can do it ten years from now. No matter what, I love you, and I'm ready when you are."

I find it hard, even now, to describe what happened next. I blinked back thousands of joyful tears as in one swift movement, with Tempest's arms around me, Grey removed my blindfold. And Sky at last told me my mother's name.